HOW DID I GET HERE, AND WHY AM I STAYING?

Dear Friends:

In moving on toward meeting our most important personal and professional goals, we fall prey to the indisputable power of Human Irrationality -- the inexorable notion of "emotional investment" overrides logic, and causes us to take improper action and to waste precious, limited, uncertain time.

If it is true that in order to optimize one's opportunity at success by being, "In the right place at the right time," then why do we, in complete defiance of the Laws of Physics, spend excessive time in the wrong place? This defies intellectual logic, but it suits our emotional frailties. These frailties are worth mentioning, labelling, and be vigilant about:

1. SUNK COSTS - When we have invested funds or other resources in a failed (and likely unsalvageable) project, we should consider these to be irretrievable "sunk costs", and should, logically speaking, cut out losses and leave. In reality, as we get more emotionally invested in the project, and it ceases to become an invest and starts to become our baby, we irrationally continue to nuture it, to expend additional funds ("in for a penny, in for aplound..."), and to be protective of our original decision to partipate. This combination of self-justification, messianic delusions and denial cause us to continue sepending money and other resources on a losing proposition. Recognize sunk costs, and cut your losses early on. The object of an investment is to win, not to validate your undernourished ego............................................................................................................................
2. OPPORTUNITY COSTS - When we spend our time or money on one thing, we have sacrificed the opportunity to spend them on another. When we decide in favor of one thing, we decide against all other opportunities. If we invest money on the wrong project, we are sacrificing the opportunity to invest in another. If we spend time in a bad job, a bad realtionship, or a bad environment, we are losing irreplaceable time which we could be spending elsewhere, on other things. The solution is to be able to admit when you have made a mistake, and to get out of the wrong cirucumstances and into the right ones immediately. If your trained instincts tell you that you are in the wrong place, get out in a hurry. As long as you remain in the wrong place, you cannot be in the right one.........................................................................................................................
3. TIMING ERROR - Sometimes we find ourselves in the right place, but at the wrong time. In these cases, the intelligent thing to do is to leave and to come back another time. While you sit (or stand) idly waiting, you could be investing time more productively.........................................................................................................

Know these common errors of human irrationality, and avoid being entrapped by them. Your time, as well as your financial resources, is precious.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. Click on all of the other blogs which are linked to this one -- many have already been updated.